Advice sought on something I am thinking of doing locally to foster be

[carlos123]

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I was on this forum (one year to be precise I guess). It looks rather strange but I guess that's because things have changed quite a bit here .

Anyway I was wondering if I could get input on what I am thinking of doing locally in the area where I live?

It's rather controversial in some respects and I want to be open to the Lord giving me input or wisdom from others here on this forum if anyone wants to say anything either pro or con.

Here's what I am thinking...I just got through writing a very long email to a friend asking for his input too so I am just going to be brief here without going into too many details unless anyone wants to know more. I am tired of writing for the night .

I have been praying and thinking of starting a locally oriented internet site where local christians, in the area where I live, can find fellowship during the week. Where one's can also practice their gifts of teaching, prophecy, or other such gifts by writing articles and placing them on the site.

Now there is one problem with what I am thinking of doing...I will advertise the site at my own expense to generate traffic to it (the site will not rely on search engine traffic or even be oriented to Christians at large...it is focused on reaching local Christians only). That advertisement will reach Christians involved in various local churches. If they get involved in the site it may cause some of them to leave their local churches.

The site will not only provide fellowship throughout the week but will also encourage those who visit to get together locally...off site.

If the local get togethers become all that I hope in the Lord they become...this may pull some away from their local churches.

That is the biggest problem I see. Problem in the sense of controversy but not neccessarily a problem before the Lord.

The way I see it...

Jesus spoke to the multitudes whatever the Lord laid on His heart to say. Many among the multitude belonged to local synogogues. Jesus did not wait to get permission from local synogoue rulers before sharing what He felt led to share. He just did it.

Indeed Jesus went even further in calling most all religious leaders of his day...hypocrites and worse.

We, as Christians, are called by God to exercise our spiritual gifts for the edification of the Church. We are commanded to do that. In most local churches, due to the structure of such churches - at least in North America, there is little to no opportunity to exercise various gifts that may already be present in that local church. If someone has a teaching gift, for example, there are only so many slots available for teachers. That's just one example but one which readily comes to mind.

I want to be involved in blowing open the church. To be all that the Lord would want it to be. I want to be involved in dropping the straight jacket of church traditions which hinder the work of the Holy Spirit. I want to bypass leaders of churches that are immature, selfishly ambitious, fleshly, or otherwise are not seeking the greater glory of God. Not all local church leaders are that way mind you. Not at all. But it has been my experience through more than 30 years of being a Christian that many are.

I believe the Lord wants all the denominationalism to stop. To come to a screeching halt. We need to get back to the oneness that we have in Christ. I am not talking about compromising truth. Not at all. But our unity in Christ won't even get out of the starting gate if we, the Body, don't start taking steps to put into practice what the Word says about denominationalism.

I know, I know...that I have used the word "I" a lot in this post but please don't get sidetracked by that to missing what I am asking about. I say that because some Christians seem to believe that unless you use the word "Lord" more than you use the word "I" when speaking about something that He might want done...well...that one is being selfish or otherwise not God centered.

Any input on what I have said so far would be appreciated. I will add more details as the need arises to add more details depending on the input I get.

Thanks.

Carlos

PS. For those who might remember me from way back as wanting to have started something new...well...I never did. I got sidetracked and otherwise involved in various things and before I knew it...well nothing ever came of my zeal for starting something new. I guess you could say this is a new attempt on my part to get back on track .

[Guest man]

Sounds to me like you want to start your own church.

Give it a whirl, see what happens.

[Guest]

Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. John 15:3-4

[KC02]

The first thing that comes to mind is: some people need to be lead away from their churches or at least get out and visit some other places. Only lukewarm pastors will fear their members' may leave for something better. And hopefully, they will.

Do what God is calling you to do, and let Him deal with people's heart. That is not your job.

[carlos123]

Excellent thoughts ya all. Much, much appreciated.

- go ahead and start what you are talking about and see what the Lord might do.

- be aware that unless it is Him that does things your work is in vain. Abide in Him and lean on Him to bear fruit.

- do what is right by Him to do and let the Lord worry about how people will react. Don't sweat the reaction of others.

I took some liberty to paraphrase what you all said but I think that about covers it.

I was talking to another church leader, locally tonight about all this and was refreshed to see once again that many of the principles of how a church should be are rather clear in the Word. Plurality of leadership, elders = pastors and pastors = elders, no board of elders, no associate pastors, no women in leadership positions having authority over men, liberty to exercise various spiritual gifts under the leadership of the Holy Spirit without having to get permission every time one wants to open their mouth, and so on. It's all there in black and white. This particular leader did not neccessarily agree with everything I just listed (women's roles is a big one that many leaders seem to be hesitant to embrace). The problem is that although many leaders realize some or all of these things and more besides, few; very, very few, are willing to do much about it. Most don't want to cause waves. They don't want to rock the boat. They don't want to risk their livelihood.

It was also interesting to hear him tell me that he knows of someone who actually started a church over the Internet! I thought that was interesting. I will have to find out who that is specifically and go and pick his brain .

Anyway...thanks again.

Carlos

[refugepsa91]

I remember you carlos123, nice to see you again

[carlos123]

Howdy refugepsa91!

Nice to see you again...I guess LOL. I am so sorry but it's been so long that I can't quite recall who you are but I am sure our association must have been a positive one or I wouldn't have received such a gracious welcome from you! Thanks very much.

I actually don't know if I should go and hide now that I have been rediscovered again or not . Not that I said anything bad per se before but I think I was perhaps a bit brash in how I posted back then. The Lord has since done a marvelous work in my heart and has softened me up a bit I think in terms of how I say things. At least I hope so. Don't know how involved I will get in Worthy forums again but if I do...I guess we will see .

Carlos

[carlos123]

I have a domain that I had in mind to use for this but after looking at other domain names it seems preferable to use one that reflects what I am talking about better.

It's surprising how many wonderfully appropriate domains there are that fit what I have in mind...well...just perfectly. It's almost as if the Lord has reserved them for me .

If you all don't mind giving me a bit more input can I get input on what domain ending might be best to use?

I am thinking of .ORG, .INFO, .NET, or even .CA (for Canada) domain endings.

Keep in mind that the first domain I register for this will be focused on reaching out to local Christians in the city where I live. But...if the Lord does a wonderful work through my first domain...I believe He will want other domains focused on other cities to also be similarly used.

Each domain will be named to reflect the church in a city. The ONE church of Christ in that city. But I don't want to call them churchofchrist whatever since that will be too confusing with a potential association with the Church of Christ denomination.

I am leaning in the direction of creating domains with a .ORG or .INFO ending. .COM is definitely out since that is normally associated with a business. .CA is good. Perhaps as good as .ORG or .INFO. The problem with a .CA domain is that not being a Canadian citizen I may eventually loose the ability to renew that domain if I move from Canada. Still...that might not be a problem either since I don't plan to be the never, ending big cheese of this thing. I want the Lord to raise up other men to lead this thing along with me such that I could disappear and what is of the Lord would continue.

Anyway...which domain ending sounds good to ya all and why?

I guess any of them are good. Better than none heh? But I thought I would ask in case anyone had any good input on this.

Carlos

[KC02]

Go with .com or .org. Net is for network traffic.

.Com is the paved road of the internet, the others, gravel and back roads. IMHO A .ca might work but it just seems a little odd to folks outside of Canada. Come to think of it, .us seems odd, too. For the longest time, I thought .ca was for California lol

You could buy one domain name and use subdomains for the city like this:

Maimi.MySite.com or Boise.MySite.com. That would make things easier than managing 1/2/ dozen sites. MySite.com would link to, or allow one to search for a city.

I am just thinking out loud. I hope something is helpful.

I have a domain that I had in mind to use for this but after looking at other domain names it seems preferable to use one that reflects what I am talking about better.

It's surprising how many wonderfully appropriate domains there are that fit what I have in mind...well...just perfectly. It's almost as if the Lord has reserved them for me .

If you all don't mind giving me a bit more input can I get input on what domain ending might be best to use?

I am thinking of .ORG, .INFO, .NET, or even .CA (for Canada) domain endings.

Keep in mind that the first domain I register for this will be focused on reaching out to local Christians in the city where I live. But...if the Lord does a wonderful work through my first domain...I believe He will want other domains focused on other cities to also be similarly used.

Each domain will be named to reflect the church in a city. The ONE church of Christ in that city. But I don't want to call them churchofchrist whatever since that will be too confusing with a potential association with the Church of Christ denomination.

I am leaning in the direction of creating domains with a .ORG or .INFO ending. .COM is definitely out since that is normally associated with a business. .CA is good. Perhaps as good as .ORG or .INFO. The problem with a .CA domain is that not being a Canadian citizen I may eventually loose the ability to renew that domain if I move from Canada. Still...that might not be a problem either since I don't plan to be the never, ending big cheese of this thing. I want the Lord to raise up other men to lead this thing along with me such that I could disappear and what is of the Lord would continue.

Anyway...which domain ending sounds good to ya all and why?

I guess any of them are good. Better than none heh? But I thought I would ask in case anyone had any good input on this.

Carlos

Edited October 5, 2008 by KC02

[Smalcald]

Hi Carlos,

The only other advice I would give would be to really make a commitment to doing this for some specific time period. What I mean is people need and seek stability and consistency, thus if you start this realize that you must see it through as people would be counting on you to be there a year from now. You don't want to get Christians particularly new Christians really get excited about something and then have the rug pulled out in a year.

But other than that I think it is a perfectly acceptable idea to start a new Church in your community.